Introduction to Portuguese: Lesson 5
Portuguese for to understand is perceber.
Think of perceive because there is exactly where this word comes from because its predescessor is Latin percipere which manes ‘to seize, to understand’.
You also know how to say both eu and vôce forms:
?I understand it but you don’t understand it.|Eu percebo o mas você não o percebe.
Portuguese for everything is tudo.
Think of I still have tudo undone in my TODO list.
?I understand everything.|Eu percebo tudo.
In theory you could also say:
?I don’t speak Portuguese but I understand it.|Eu não falo português mas eu percebo o.
Thus we can speak about perception (understanding, that is) and speaking and stuff. Let’s now talk about locations.
Portuguese for where is onde.
Portuguese for the bank is o banco.
Try saying with good manners:
?Where is the bank?|Onde é o banco?
You could also use é que (sounds more natural) and ask:
?Where do you work?|Onde é que vôce trabalha?
You remember that precisar de is to need of. Thus de needs of. Of course, it not only means of but it also means from.
If you want to ask where from you ask from where. Write that:
?Where from?|De onde?
If you wanted to ask where somebody is from you would say from where it is that you are (you could skip it is that but it’s cool to say it so we will). Ask:
?Where are you from?|De onde é que você é?
You could answer that by saying your country: both names Portugal and Brazil are the same in English and in Portuguese except that Brasil is actually spelled Brasil in Portuguese instead of Brazil as it is in English.
Imagine that you are born in Brazil but you have lived a lot in Portugal so you are from both countries. You will need another word to say that:
Portuguese for and is e.
Thus you can answer:
?I am from Brazil and Portugal.|Eu sou de Brasil e Portugal.
You could answer that by saying I am Portuguese or I am American or any other word which we have learnt.
The final word that we will be learning in this course is hi:
Portuguese for hi is olá.
It is almost the same as the Spanish word for hi which is hola except the Portuguese word olá is stressed on the last letter.
This is worthless but say
?Hi|Olá
You have already learnt the Portuguese word for good. Do you remember it?
?Good|Bom
You also know the Portuguese word for well. Do you remember that one too?
?Well|Bem
So, how would you say:
?Everything good.|Tudo bom
Equally you could say:
?Everything well|Tudo bem
Everything good means it’s okay or I’m fine. It is also the question for how are you doing in Portuguese. People just ask each other is everything well? and they answer everything well or sometimes simply everything and that’s how they talk to each other.
Both tudo bom and tudo bem are used but you would probably hear tudo bem more often so that’s what we will use. Say:
?How are you doing?|Tudo bem?
On this note, we are done with this course. Let’s have a conversation to solidify what you have learnt.
?Hello.|Olá.
?Hi. What’s up?|Olá. Tudo bem?
?I’m fine. Why do you speak Portuguese?|Tudo bem. Por que é que você fala português?
?Because I am from Brazil. Where are you from?|Porque eu sou de Brasil. De onde vôce é?
?I am American. I don’t speak Portuguese well but I speak English, Italian and French.|Eu sou americano. Eu não falo bem português mas eu falo inglês, italiano e francês.
?I want to speak Portuguese. Do you understand everything?|Eu quero falar português. Você percebe tudo?
?I understand. Do you study or work?|Eu percebo. Você estuda ou trabalha?
?I study.|Eu estudo.
?What do you study?|O que é que você estuda?
?I study Portuguese. And you?|Eu estudo português. E você?
?Don’t you know what I study?|Você não sabe o que eu estudo?
?I don’t know.|Eu não sei.
?It is because I dont study. I work.|É porque eu não estudo. Eu trabalho.
That’s a good place to end this course.
NOTE: You have finished this course. Well done! You can now check out some of the other courses we have:
| Forming the Future Subjunctive | a course of Portuguese with 3 lessons produced by Linas |
| Portuguese Basics | a course of Portuguese with 10 lessons produced by Linas |
| Introduction to Turkish | a course of Turkish with 5 lessons produced by boracasli |
| Introduction to Latvian | a course of Latvian with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
| Latin Introductory Phrases | a course of Latin with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
You can also return to the main page of the labs to see all of the courses we have here.